Ramona Pony Baseball members were excited to open their 2017 season with two additions to the league’s complex: a new field for the Shetland players and six shade structures to protect fans during games.

Pony Baseball’s opening day was Saturday, March 4.

”We are super-excited to be able to finally open this field and give our youngest players one of the best fields in the county to play on,” said Pony Baseball board president Joe Fiedler in an email.

Pinto Pittsburgh Pirates and their coaches, along with other teams and players’ families, wait for opening day ceremonies to begin. (Courtesy of Jeff Reese)

The projects at the league’s fields in Ramona Community Park were a long time coming, said Pony board member Jeff Reese.

It took a lot of fundraising, volunteer help and working through red tape to get them accomplished, he said.

The league first started thinking about constructing a new Shetland field in 2012 or 13, he said, and had plenty of volunteers with the skills to do the work. The field that the four-to six-year-olds were playing on was much farther away from the other fields, he explained.

“It’s going to be so nice to have them on the complex,” said Reese.

Ramona Pony Baseball board member Jeff Reese stands at home plate in the organization's new Shetland field, complete with dugouts and a scoreboard. (Karen Brainard)

Pony Baseball provided its own funding rather than try to use Park Land Dedication Ordinance funds as two other sports associations in the park have been attempting to do since 2013.

The bureaucratic process for the PLDO funds, which come from a fee paid by residential developers and are administered by the county, have continually stalled the LED scoreboards for the Ramona Girls Softball and the field expansion for Ramona Soccer League. The PLDO funds for those projects are expected to be released by the county in April.

Pony Baseball had its challenges, though.

Reese said they had to get approval from Ramona Parks and Recreation Association (RPRA), Ramona Municipal Water District and County of San Diego, and it had to be in a certain order. The park is owned by the water district, which leases it to RPRA, which subleases to the sports groups. Reese represents Pony Baseball on the RPRA board.

The Pony Baseball volunteers worked their way through the permitting process.

For all the sports projects, the county required a minor deviation to the park’s major use permit. Reese said Pony Baseball’s project was lumped in with the others for the minor deviation.

Then there was the question of how to fund the new field and shade structures.

“We’ve been generating a lot of our funds through Cake and Cap Night,” said Reese.

Cake and Cap Night is when players find out what team they are on, who their coaches are, and bid for a team name and cake, he explained.

Before the event, each baseball player solicits sponsorships and donations. Players on each team pool together their sponsorship money to bid on a team name during the auction at Cake and Cap Night. Sometimes parents pitch in extra money as the bids go higher, said Reese.

The highest amount so far for a team name was $2,200, he said.

The first year Cake and Cap Night brought in $7,000 to $8,000, and the following year netted$15,000, said the board member.

Helping to keep the project costs down were the many volunteers who could provide materials and do the labor.

Two shade structures cover stands at a Pony baseball field. A total of six shade structures were added in the baseball complex in Ramona Community Park. (Courtesy of Jeff Reese)

The shade structures were estimated to cost $100,000. Reese said they were able to purchase materials directly from a manufacturer for $25,000 and volunteers donated the labor and equipment. The league budgeted $25,000 for the field but donated materials and labor brought the cost down to around $16,000, he said.